


5 Times Nobody Saw Peter Panic, and the 1 Time Someone Did

by AlexTheShipper



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety Attacks, Fluffy Angst, Gen, Panic Attacks, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Vision mentioned, dad tony, drowning mentioned, giant squid attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 08:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11437338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexTheShipper/pseuds/AlexTheShipper
Summary: There's a building collapsed on top of him, and water rushing over his face. Peter can't breathe. There's an evil dude with wings trying to steal dangerous technology and Peter can't breathe.He's Spider-man, he's not afraid of water. He's a damn super hero.





	1. Washed Hair, Clean Face.

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for panic attacks throughout.

Peter can stop a bus with his bare hands. He’s strong, strong enough to lift a container at the air-port. Strong enough to fight Captain America and his metal armed friend. But Peter is currently being crushed under several tons of building. He can’t breathe right, and there’s water rushing over his head, he breathes in and gets only a mouthful of wet fabric. His lungs are aching, and he manages to yank the mask off, tilt his head so when he breathes there isn’t too much water trying to rush into his lungs.

Peter’s lungs ache, his back aches, and there might be a piece of rebar cutting into his left leg.

Peter aches.

“Please, someone help.” He pleads, he’s not sure if he’s crying or if it’s just the water running down his face. All he knows is that he’s scared, and this time Mr. Stark isn’t coming to save him, and that means Mr. Stark isn’t coming to save anyone else the Vulture could hurt, it’s just Peter.

 _‘If you’re nothing without the suit, you shouldn’t have it._ ’ Peter refuses to be nothing without the suit, not when people could get hurt. His lungs are still screaming, but he forces himself to breathe, and push up. The rubble shifts, there’s dust in the air and he still can’t breathe. He pushes harder. Drags himself upright on will power alone.

He has a fight to win, a plane to stop.

…

“What the fuck?” Aunt May is absolutely pissed, and Peter is absolutely dead.

“It’s not what you think.” He blurts, looking around the room, she crosses her arms over her chest. Not buying it then. “I’m cosplaying.” He offers, sounding too much like he’s asking a question.

“You’re full of shit is what you are, take that damn thing off and take a shower. We’ll talk about this when you don’t smell like a high school gym.” She points towards the bathroom, he’s relieved to have a break. He can handle this, he just has to think of what to say. “Go, now. You have 15 minutes and then we’re talking.”

“Okay, thank you Aunt May.” He practically runs into the bathroom, turning the water on while stripping out of the suit.

“Aunt May, I know it’s dangerous, but I need to do this.” He tells the mirror. _What about when you get hurt? You’ve already gotten hurt. Is this how you got that blackeye? “_ Yeah that’s how I got the black eye, and the split lip.” _Peter, you can’t just throw yourself into danger like this._ “Aunt May I need to do this.” Even in his head he knows it’s a losing argument.

“I’m so dead.” He groans, stepping into the shower. It’s not totally warm yet, and the cold water hits his face. Suddenly he can’t breathe. There’s water in his mouth in his lungs.

“I can’t do this, I can’t do this, I can’t do this.” He feels like his chest is being crushed under tons of rubble, like his lungs just can’t expand. “Please, someone help.” He whispers, the panic making his lungs constrict. He can’t breathe, can’t think. He doesn’t know how long he stands like that, just knows that his fingers left bruises on his chest.

“Peter, you okay in there?” Aunt May yells, banging on the door. Peter jumps, stepping back out of the spray.  His heart is still racing in his chest.

“I’m fine Aunt May!” He calls back, stumbling out of the shower and grabbing a towel of the wrack. “Be out in a second.”

“Good, we really need to talk.” She replies, he uses his webs to turn off the shower. He takes a deep breath, and he puts his clothes back on. He needs to talk to Aunt May.

…

Peter is absolutely totally fine, so what if he can’t really wash his hair in the shower. If he angles the shower head towards the wall so his head is never under the stream, and keeps the water really hot he can shower. Except, his hair is starting to get really greasy.

“I can do this, I can do this.” It’s a mantra now, he just needs to get his head under the water for a second. If he gets his hair wet that’s a start. He turns to face the spray, and there’s water in his eyes. He hits his elbow on the wall, and knocks over Aunt May’s conditioner when he stumbles back.

“Peter? Are you okay?”  May asks, knocking gently on the door.

“I’m fine, slipped a little that’s all!” He calls back. His heart is beating rapidly in his chest, and he slumps down into the tub. “Fine, I just can’t wash my fucking hair.” He mumbles to himself.

“Be careful.” May calls. He stares at the water. There has to be a way to do this without getting water in his face. An idea occurs to him then, and he grabs onto the ceiling pulling his legs up and crawling over the shower stream. Now if he just tilts his head back he can get his hair wet and keep his face dry, grabbing the shampoo and scrubbing it into his hair with one hand, the other clinging to the ceiling. Eventually the shampoo washes out, and he drops down to turn the water off, dropping directly into the spray.

“Fuck.” He gasps, and his heart is already racing. He makes a grab for the towel on instinct, trying to dry his face off. He winds up with soaking wet fabric pressed over his mouth, and his lungs too tight to breathe. He falls backwards out of the tub, taking a whole lot of water with him.

He sits on the bathroom floor, soaking wet and shivering. He breathes in, he breathes out. His heart rate calms down, and he gets up. Takes a dry towel and wraps it around himself, uses his dirty clothes to mop up the rest of the water. Eventually he gets up the guts to turn the shower off. He’ll come back to fish the wet towel out of the tub later.

…

He didn’t think about it, barely noticed the rain falling against his suit until he looked up, and the front of the mask got wet.

“Karen.” He gasps, dropping out of his swing in a messy roll. He misses a dumpster by a couple inches, and crouches next to it.

“Yes Peter?” She asks, he takes a deep breath, and drops his head between his lungs, but now he’s aware of every drop of rain hitting his back.

“Where’s the closes place I can buy an umbrella?” He asks. His hands are shaking again. His chest is tight. He looked it up after the shower incident. He already knew, but he wanted to be sure.

“Approximately four blocks away.” Karen answers. Peter wants to scream and cry, and breathe. God does he want to breathe.

“How long until the storm passes?” He asks instead, pressing close to the wall. There’s a slight overhang, protecting him from the rain.

“Approximately four hours twenty minutes.” Karen answers him. His breath hiccups in his lungs.

“I want to go home Karen.” He whispers, eyes filling with tears.

“Plotting course.” He gets home, soaked to the bone and cold. His backpack is probably gone, and his whole body is shaking, although that could be the nerves or the cold.

Next Wednesday, Karen warns him before the rain starts.

…

“We’re going to the pool Peter, it’s supposed to be a team bonding activity or something.” MJ says, when he opens the door to his room. He glances back to Ned looking for a way out, and gets a thumbs up in reply.

“I ca-“ He starts to say no. His throat closing up at the thought. He can’t go swimming, he can barely wash his face most days there’s no way he can get in a swimming pool with other people.

“We’ll be right down.” Ned says, shoving the door further open and waving at MJ. “I thought you didn’t care about team bonding activities.”

“I don’t.” She retorts, turning away. Peter rushes to grab her sleeve, shooting a glare Ned’s way. “What Peter?”

“I don’t really want to go swimming.” He says. “Ned will go by himself.” She looks at him for a second, and he wonders if she can see the way his pulse is jumping in his neck. Wonders if he’s shaking as much as he feels like he is.

“That’s fine. See you tomorrow.” She shrugs, and turns to leave. He lets himself breathe again. Ned scowls at him shutting the door.

“What the heck dude? She totally wants you to be there!” Ned complains. Peter quirks a smile.

“How could I compete with you in a swim suit Ned? It would be a shame to even try.” He jokes, Ned laughs. “It’s no big deal dude, I’ll see you later. Have fun down there.”  

…

Tony doesn’t fight with Peter all that often, they tend to do their own things. But when a giant squid steals the statue of liberty off Staten Island, shit’s getting real and it’s all hands-on deck. It’s fine. Peter can totally fight a giant water creature, in the water. He’s fine. He’s pretty sure Tony hasn’t noticed the way Peter is staying away from the coast. After all there are no buildings out there, what’s he supposed to do anyways.

“Peter, civilians, south west of me, clear them out!” Mr. Starks words ring in the suit. Peter nods, swinging in that direction. He’s lucky Mr. Stark wants him away from the fight.

“I need everyone to back up.” Peter orders, trying to wave people away from the beach. “Please take your personal belongings and head into the city. A few people shuffle away, but most don’t put their cameras down. A tentacle swings towards them, and Peter webs to it, swinging to pull it away. It knocks off some tourists ‘I heart New York’ hat, but he manages to stop it, heels digging into the sand. People run, finally. Peter doesn’t get long to celebrate his victory before he’s being flicked towards the squid. Towards the water. He shoots his webs, trying to grab a hold of Tony’s suit before he hits the water. His first shot goes wide, and the second one latches onto the suit as he plunges under water.

Peter stops breathing. There’s water rushing over his head, and he can’t see. He doesn’t know which way is up, and he can’t breathe. He can’t fucking breathe. Suddenly, he’s on the beach.

“What?” He gasps, trying to jump to his feet. Tony’s hand is there, keeping him down. That’s Tony’s hand, not the suit. When did he get out of the suit.

“It’s okay kid. Fight’s over, just stay down for a second. I need you to breathe with me.” Tony says, and he takes a deep breath in. Peter takes a short gasp for air. “Good try kid, breathe in deep one, two, three.” He orders, and Peter tries. “and out two, three. Good, good, and in.” Peter tries to sit up again, his heart is racing.

“I’m fine.” He insists. Tony doesn’t let him up, and he doesn’t stop counting. “Really Mr. Stark. I’m okay.”

“I believe you kid, but I would understand if you weren’t. I’m not such a big fan of water myself.” Tony admits, Peter shakes his head, flinching when wet hair smacks against his face.

“I’m fine, I just. I couldn’t breathe for a second.” Peter admits, Tony sits down, his nice suit covered in sand. “Really, I’m okay.” There’s a warm arm around his shoulder.

“You’re full of shit is what you are Parker.” Tony says, Peter finds himself leaning into Mr. Stark’s side. It’s warm, and he is so cold. “Stop being fine, and just breathe for a second.” He didn’t realize he was shaking until he looks at his own hand. “Adrenaline drop, not fun. We should probably find you a candy bar and some water.” Peter doesn’t want to get up.

“What about the squid?” He asks, they need to beat it. He doesn’t feel like getting up though, isn’t sure he can.

“Vision has the calamari situation figured out, you’re fine kid.” Tony soothes. Peter isn’t sure he could have gotten up anyways. “Listen I’m going to level with you here. I’m not good at this stuff.” Peter finds that hard to believe, his heart beat is closer to normal now, and he can breathe again. “I don’t take care of myself as well as I should. I’m certainly in no place to be giving advice, but I’m going to do it anyways. When this sort of thing happens, tell somebody. I don’t care if it’s me or Ned, or your hot aunt, or Rhodey. But tell somebody. We all care about you kid. Even Happy, grumpy as he may be.”

“I’m spider-man I can do this on my own. I shouldn’t be afraid of a little water.” Peter grumbles, Tony rubs his back.

“You’re a person Peter, not a god. Did you know Thor is afraid of bunnies?” Tony blurts, and Peter blinks at him. “He’s terrified of them. Me, I don’t like water. Vision, Vision doesn’t like being underground too much. We’re people Peter, and people get scared. It’s okay if you do too.” Peter blinks away tears. “It’s okay to be human Peter.” Peter nods.

“Can I have a hug?” Peter sniffles. He expects Mr. Stark to hesitate, instead he just wraps Peter up in the warmest (sandiest) hug Peter has ever experienced.

“I got you kid, you’re okay.” He mutters. Peter clings to him, like his life depends on it.

“Wait, how do you know Ned? You only met aunt May.” Peter says. Trying to figure out where Tony and Ned could have met.

“I made him a certificate for Best Chair Guy, that’s not important right now.” He tries to wave it off. Peter grins at him.

“It’s kinda important.” Peter teases. “You care.” Tony rolls his eyes.

“I am a callous rich old man, and I don’t care about anyone.” He grumbles.

“You totally care.” Peter pokes him in the side, and then rolls to his feet. “Need help getting up? Old man?”


	2. Certified Chair Guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story of Ned's Chair Guy certificate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank @digdipper09 on Tumblr for this.

"Boss, Peter Parker is currently taking on the Bratva." Friday notified him of Peter's battles, but this is a little bigger than Peter's norm.

"Is he okay?" Tony asks, reaching for the suit controls.

"Fine Boss, but he has lost contact with his friend Ned." Friday informs him. He doesn't call the suit, but he does have Ned's laptop.

"What the fuck?" Ned asks, fingers scrambling over his keys trying to get control back.

"Sorry kid, I'm gonna hook you back up with Peter." Tony informs him, opening up the suit controls. Ned seems caught between awe and pouting.

"I'm supposed to be The Chair Guy." Need grumbles. "I'm the hacker friend dude." Tony nods amicably and finishes pulling up the suit info.

"You're a very good hacker too." Tony agrees. "And you're in." He smirks at the camera. Ned snorts a laugh as the window closes. A minute later his printer turns on, printing a colorful certificate signed by Tony Stark.

Certified Chair Guy is written in purple lettering across the middle. The Stark Industries logo is orange, and Tony Stark's signature is navy blue. It's absolutely hideous, and easily the coolest certificate Ned has ever received. It replaces his High School diploma in the middle of his wall.


End file.
